Vampire History

Although the term 'Vampire' is a relatively new one, the concept of a supernatural being or creature feeding on the blood or flesh of the living goes back thousands of years and is found worldwide in every religion. The earliest recorded reference to Vampires comes from excavated Persian pottery. Some of these excavated shards depicts creatures, or demons, attempting to drink the blood of men. The Ancient Babylonians and Assyrians had tales of the mythical Lilitu, which would eventually give rise to the Hebrew female demon Lilith.

The Rise of Lilith

Lilith is first mentioned in Hebrew legend as the first wife of Adam. Since both Adam and Lilith were created out of dust, Lilith considered herself to be equal to Adam and would not lie beneath him during intercourse. When Adam complained to God, he sent three angels to reason with her. The angels found Lilith "coupling with fallen angels near the Red Sea and bearing...demonic children". Eve was then created for Adam as a replacement for Lilith. Adam and Eve would go on to "eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil", while Lilith would not. Because of this, many traditions believe that Lilith is immortal and was rewarded by Asmodeus, the demon of lechery, luxuriousness and evil revenge.

In the Bible Lilith appears in Isaiah 34:14:

"Wildcats shall meet with hyenas,goat-demons shall call to each other;there too Lilith shall repose,and find a place to rest."

Lilith also appears in the Songs of The Sage found in a fragmentary Hebrew manuscript containing a Jewish magical text of incantation and exorcism in the Dead Sea scrolls. The text was used for protection against a list of demons.

"And I, the Instructor, proclaim His glorious splendour so as to frighten and to te[rrify] all the spirits of the destroying angels, spirits of the bastards, demons, Lilith, howlers, and [desert dwellers…] and those which fall upon men without warning to lead them astray from a spirit of understanding and to make their heart and their […] desolate during the present dominion of wickedness and predetermined time of humiliations for the sons of lig[ht], by the guilt of the ages of [those] smitten by iniquity – not for eternal destruction, [bu]t for an era of humiliation for transgression."

Lilith by John Collier - 1892

In the above excerpts, Lilith is listed both the in the Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls among a group of animals, beasts and monsters during God's final judgement.

Some scholars believe that Lilith is also referred to in Proverbs 2:18-19

"Her house sinks down to death,And her course leads to the shades.All who go to her cannot returnAnd find again the paths of life."

However, Lilith is not always translated as 'Lilith'. The original text reads as 'lilitu', a word from Ancient Babylon which would come to mean 'night'. Other translations replace Lilith with 'night hag', 'Lamia' or 'screech owl' as found within the King James Version of the Bible. Many vampire historians believe Lilith to be the very first vampire and she remains a popular and dominate figure in vampire mythology.

Greek and Roman Mythology

Empusa - Daughter of goddess Hecate and the spirit Mormo, Empusa was a demigoddess who feasted on the blood of seduced young men as they slept. In later mythology the Empusae (plural) were sent to guard roadsides and devour travellers.

Lamia - A Queen of Libya who became a child eating Daemon. Many tales say that she had a serpent's tail from the waist down, and she is often depicted with snakeskin wrapped around her waist and arms. Similar to Empusa, later traditions refer to many 'Lamiae'. These folklore monsters would seduce young men and then feed on their blood. Throughout Medieval Europe many mothers began telling children frightening tales of Lamia until "she became a kind of fairy-tale figure, used by mothers and nannies to induce good behavior among children."

Mormo - Mother of Empusa and companion to Hecate. Mormo was said to be a spirit who bit bad children. Similar to Lamia, Mormo soon became a generic name for a vampire-like creature told to children to keep them from misbehaving.

Lamia and the Soldier - 1905John William Waterhouse

The Spread of Christianity

With the spread of Christianity throughout Europe; Greek, Roman and other pagan mythologies surrounding vampire like creatures began to take on Christian characteristics. It was during this period that vampires (or what would later become known as 'vampires') started to be viewed as creatures that retained a life like form and could leave their graves, much in the same way as Jesus had done during his Resurrection. It was also during this time period that many of the myths and legends surrounding vampires, how they live, how they are created and they are killed originated. The fact that vampires can only survive by drinking the blood of its victims, by taking their victims spirit into itself by drinking their blood, has direct similarities to the Christian belief that they can take the divine spirit into themselves by drinking Christ's blood during Holy Communion.

The ability of holy water, images of the cross, holy prayers, and rosaries to harm vampires is a direct result of new Christian views coming to terms with old world vampire mythology. However, many pre-Christian beliefs have remained until today. The concept that a vampire can be killed by a wooden stake through the heart is just one example. Since many pre-Christians believed that different trees had special and sacred properties it was only natural that the wooden stakes used to kill vampires were made of these trees. Oak, ash and hawthorn were among the most popular. The use of frankincense, myrrh, rock salt, vervain and millet also have pre-Christian roots. While many associate frankincense and myrrh with the Christian faith, it actually has its origin in Ancient Egypt. It was believed that the aroma represented life and was used ward off evil.

Vlad the Impaler - 1431-1476. Vlad III, was Prince of Wallachia and son of Vlad II Dracul of the Order of The Dragon. Better known by his patronymic name Dracula, there is no other figure in vampiric lore larger than that of Dracula. His name is synonymous with vampires and the two are forever linked. It was not however until 1897 and the publication of Bram Stoker's Dracula that Vlad III become connected with the concept of vampires. But the connections between the historical Vlad the Impaler and that of Count Dracula found in Stoker's novel are mostly in the use of his name only. Dracula was however a huge critical success and by the time he found his way onto the big screen the legend of Count Dracula was born, forever linking Vlad the Impaler and the Count.

The historic Vlad the Impaler however is revered as a hero in Bulgaria for his protection of the Bulgarian Christian population against the advance of the Islamic Ottoman Empire. In fact, his defence of Christian lands were celebrated in Transylvania, the Italian states and the Pope himself.

However, during his lifetime Dracula earned a reputation for being a tyrant and his sadistic pleasure in torturing and killing have become legendary. Most estimates of the number of his victims range from 40,000 to 80,000 with some even reaching 100,000 people. Not included in these estimate are the large number of towns, villages, castles and fortresses he had destroyed and burned to the ground. Vlad's favourite method of torture and execution was impalement. One story tells of an invading Ottoman army turning back in fright due to the thousands of rotting corpses

on the banks of the Danube. Another tells of Mehmed II, conqueror of Constantinople, (a man noted for his own psychological warfare tactics) "returning to Constantinople after being sickened by the sight of 20,000 impaled corpses outside Vlad's capital". The years following Dracula's death saw many pamphlets, manuscripts and works of art concerning Dracula's level of cruelty. One such German wood carving dating from 1499 (shown above) depicts Dracula dinning in a forest of impaled victims while watching an executioner carving and dismembering further victims.

Countess Elizabeth Bathory - 1560-1614. A contemporary of Queen Elizabeth I of England, Elizabeth Bathory is another historical figure forever linked with vampiric lore. Born in 1560 to the renowned Bathory of Hungarian nobility, she was daughter of Stephen Bathory, Voivod of Transylvania, and niece to the King of Poland and Duke of Transylvania. At the age of 14 she was married to Count Ferenc Nadasdy (1555-1604) who gave her Cachtice Castle (located in the Carpathian Mountains) as a wedding gift. In 1578 Nadasdy became chief commander of the Hungarian troops against the Ottomans in the Long War (1593-1606) and Elizabeth was charged with the defence of his estates. It was during this time when rumours began to circulated about certain atrocities surrounding the Countess. In 1610 the Holy Emperor Matthias II began an investigation and on December 10 the Countess along with 4 servants were arrested.

Between 1610-1611 over 300 testimonies were collected from commoners, nobleman and priests. The testimony revealed that the Countess was torturing and killing adolescent girls. She began with local peasant girls who were often abducted or lured to the castle with the promise of work. She would later start killing the daughters of local gentry sent to the castle to learn etiquette. These young girls were said to have been beaten, burned, mutilated, bitten, frozen, starved and sexually abused. According to the witnesses, the Countess not only tortured and killed these young girls at Cachtice Castle, but also at her other properties in Sarvar, Nemetkeresztur, Bratislava and Vienna. Several witnesses from Sarvar Castle claim to have removed between 100-200 bodies from the castle. One witness described a book or journal in which a total of over 650 victims were listed. After the trial 2 of the servants had their fingers pulled off with hot pokers and were then burned at the stake. The Countess herself was walled up within one of the towers in her castle with only a small opening to receive provisions. She was found dead on August 21, 1614 surrounded by several plates of untouched food. Initially her body was buried in the church of Cachtice Castle but "due to the villagers' uproar over having "The Tigress of Cachtice" buried in their cemetery, her body was moved to her birth home at Ecsed, where it is interred at the Bathory family crypt."

The years following her death would see numerous stories and myths emerge. In 1729 Laszlo Turoczi published Tragica Historia in which he tells how Elizabeth Bathory used to bath in the blood of her victims in order to retain her youth. The modern concept that a vampire must drink blood to heal themselves and remain young has its origin from the legends surrounding Elizabeth Bathory.

Birth of the Modern Vampire

The concept of the 'modern vampire', the vampire as we know it today, has its roots in Eastern Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries. The folklore coming out of Eastern Europe during this time highly influence vampire legend in Western Europe.

Jure Grando - From the Istria region of modern day Croatia, Jure Grando is perhaps the first person to be historically described as a vampire. Jure supposedly died and was buried in 1656 but according to legend came back from the dead as a vampire and terrorised the village of Tinjan in 1672. Legend states that he would knock on the doors of local homes and within a few days someone who lived in that house would die. Jure's widow also stated that he appeared to her through a window, smiling and gasping for air, then sexually assaulted her. One of the villagers led by the prefect Miho Radetic tried staking him through the heart with no success. The next night nine villagers went to the grave and dug up Jure Grando body. Reports say they found a perfectly preserved body with a smile on his face. They again attempted to stake him through the heart with a hawthorn stake but again the stake could not penetrate his flesh. After some exorcism prayers Stipan Milasic, one of the local villagers, sawed off Jure Grando head. The villagers reported that the vampire began to scream and blood filled the grave. Legend has it that after Grando's decapitation peace returned to the area.

The early 1700's saw a frenzy of vampire sightings in Eastern Europe resulting in numerous stakings and the digging up of graves in an attempt to identify potential vampires. Stories of vampires soon reached the west resulting in a European wide mass hysteria. Two of these stories involved the corpses of Peter Plogojowitz andArnold Paole of Serbia. They are among the most famous and well documented cases of vampires to date.

Sava Savanovic - Like both Peter Plogojowitz and Arnold Paole, Sava Savanovic story comes to us from Serbia. It was believed that Savanovic lived in an old mill and would drink the blood of millers returning to collect their grain. The case of Sava Savanovic is not as well documented but it is believed that he pre-dates Plogojowitz and Paole, and is the first Serbian Vampire.

Peter Plogojowitz - supposedly returned from the dead in 1725 asking his son for food. After refusing, his son was soon found dead. During the following 8 days 9 people died. On their death beds all 9 of the supposed victims claimed that they had been attacked by Plogojowitz. The villagers demanded that his body be exhumed and examined for signs of vampirism. When the authorities finally examined his body they found that all the characteristics associated with vampires in local belief were present. The locals began staking his body causing fresh blood to flow from his mouth and ears. He was then burned and the case was published and widely circulated throughout Europe.

Arnold Paole - was farmer who died in 1726 that had been attacked by a vampire years before. After his death people in his native village of Meduegna began to die and it was believed that Paole had returned as a vampire himself. When his grave was opened it was discovered that his body was not decomposing. Fresh blood ran from his mouth, nose, eyes and ears, and his clothes and coffin were also covered with blood. When finally staked through the heart his corpse began to moan and bleed. His was finally burned along with all his victims.

Within 5 years the area around Meduegna would see another 10 people die. This time a full investigation was launched by the authorities into a possible epidemic of pestilence. They sent an infectious disease specialist by the name of Glaser who found no sign of pestilence and blamed all the deaths on malnutrition. The villagers did not except these conclusions and threatened to abandon the village if the vampires were not destroyed. In an effort to appease the local villagers and quell local hysteria Glaser agreed and several bodies were exhumed. To his surprise and to the horror of the villagers some of the bodies had no sign of decomposition and had fresh blood in their mouths. Glaser then sent a report recommending that the authorities "pacify the population by fulfilling its request to "execute" the vampires." This report was sent to the Supreme Command in Belgrade and a second commission was sent.

Included in this second commission was a military surgeon Johann Fluckinger. On the 7th of January 1732 the commission along with the village elders and some local Gypsies re-opened the graves of the suspected vampires. Their results were similar to that of Glaser. The commission summarized their findings that the corpses were 'das Vampyrenstand', 'the vampiric condition.' The Gypsies present at the exhumation decapitated the corpses, burned them, and threw the ashes in the Morava River. Similar to Peter Plogojowitz, the story of Arnold Paole and the conclusions of the 1732 commission were published and widely circulated throughout Europe, adding to the already growing Vampire Hysteria.

By 1746 Antoine Augustin Calmet, a French theologian, had publish a treatise on the existence of vampires. In response, the great philosopher Voltaire wrote:

"These vampires were corpses, who went out of their graves at night to suck the blood of the living, either at their throats or stomachs, after which they returned to their cemeteries. The persons so sucked waned, grew pale, and fell into consumption; while the sucking corpses grew fat, got rosy, and enjoyed an excellent appetite. It was in Poland, Hungary, Silesia, Moravia, Austria, and Lorraine, that the dead made this good cheer."

The hysteria was only quelled when the Holy Empress Marie Theresa sent her personal physician to investigate the possibility of vampiric entities. He concluded that vampires did not exist and laws were soon passed against the opening of graves and the desecration of the deceased.

Vampires in the Victorian Era

Vampire first began to appear in poems during the mid 1700's, but it was not until 1819 and the publication of John Polidori's The Vampyre that we see vampires enter into the romantic genre of fantasy fiction. The Vampyre is described as "the first story to successfully fuse the disparate elements of vampirism into a coherent literary genre." Two other literary landmarks are James Malcolm Rymer's Varney The Vampire published in book form in 1847 and Sheridan Le Fanu's Camilla published in 1871. Both of the vampires in these stories are portrayed in a somewhat sympathetic way. These works highly influence Bram Stoker and his publication of Dracula in 1897. "Its portrayal of vampirism as a disease of contagious demonic possession, with its undertones of sex, blood and death, struck a chord in Victorian Europe where tuberculosis and syphilis were common. The vampiric traits described in Stoker's work merged with and dominated folkloric tradition, eventually evolving into the modern fictional vampire."

Bram Stoker - 1906

Vampires Today

Bram Stoker's Dracula spawned an entirely new wave of vampire popularity. Appearing not only in the genre of gothic horror, but also romance, science fiction and stories aimed and young adults. Some of the more popular and influential stories include Richard Matheson's I am Legend (1954), Marilyn Ross's Barnabas Collins (1966-1971) and the early film Nosferatu (1922). But perhaps the most significant work of the 20th century is Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles (1976-2003). Rice's work "saw the beginning of the convergence of traditional Gothic ideas with the modern Gothic subculture." Anne Rice and Marilyn Ross also "set the trend for seeing vampires as poetic tragic heroes rather than as the traditional embodiment of evil." The concept of a vampire hero and not the villain is perhaps best portrayed in Joss Whedon's character Angel (Angelus). Appearing in the TV

Max Schreck in Nosferatu (1922)

David Boreanaz as Angelus

series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003) and Angel (1999-2004) Angel is over 2 centuries and 'cursed' with a soul. Starting out as a reluctant hero who stayed in the shadows, Angel soon ends up a dark, flawed, champion of mankind, seeking to voluntarily atone for his sins.

Today vampires can be found in nearly every type of media imaginable from movies, music, novels, TV, comics, to children's cartoons and within every type of genre. The appeal of the modern vampire and vampire lore is indeed alive and well today. Many of the popular vampire stories in the 21 century explore how vampires live in the modern era and how they deal with their personal relationships with other vampires and the rest of society. Series such and True Blood, Twilight, The Vampire Diaries, and Underworld are just some examples of the new vampire stories of today.